Katrina Hartley

About Katrina Hartley

Accomplished technology leader with front-office experience building and scaling investment platforms within Asset Management. I specialize in leading engineering teams that design resilient, high-performance systems that support capital markets workflows, while bridging the gap between engineering execution and business outcomes.My background spans full-stack platform development, cloud architecture, and technical leadership. I previously served as a Vice President of web development on a trading platform, where I led engineering initiatives focused on platform scalability, performance optimization, and delivery of capabilities used directly by investment professionals. I have extensive experience working with trading systems, market data, and the technical demands of front-office environments.Currently, I am a Technical Lead at Vanguard, driving cloud modernization and AWS migration initiatives for critical retirement platforms. I lead technical direction, architectural decisions, and cross-team execution to move legacy systems to secure, scalable cloud-native environments. With multiple AWS certifications and deep experience in distributed systems, I focus on building platforms that are resilient, maintainable, and built for long-term growth.Across roles, I’ve led engineering teams, driven platform modernization efforts, and delivered complex technical programs from design through Production. I’m particularly interested in leadership roles at the intersection of cloud architecture, trading technology, and large-scale platform engineering.

Experience

1. Application Engineering Technical Lead - Ii

   Vanguard

   Jul 2025 — Present · Charlotte, NC, US

   I lead the technical direction for migration of core retirement platform workloads from mainframe to AWS, shaping target-state architecture and modernization strategy.• Design and implement cloud-based integration patterns including SQS, MQ, SFTP, EFS, and event-driven architectures to enable reliable communication between legacy and distributed systems• Serve as a key liaison between engineering teams, senior architects, and program leadership to align architectural decisions with long-term platform strategy• Chief of Staff to senior architecture leadership, contributing to division-wide technology planning and AI-focused initiatives• Coordinate across internal teams and external contractors to ensure cohesive integration of batch processing, cloud services, and distributed application components• Drive end-to-end delivery by removing technical blockers, defining standards, and ensuring systems meet requirements for scalability, security, and operational reliability• Help modernize legacy processing models into cloud-compatible workflows while maintaining business continuity for critical retirement services

Education

• University of North Carolina at Charlotte

  Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Computer Science and Mathematics, Magna Cum Laude

  2015 — 2019

• University of North Carolina at Charlotte

  Master's degree, Mathematical Finance, Cum Laude

  2018 — 2020

Skills

• Microsoft Excel
• Management
• Microsoft Office
• Java
• Project Management
• Leadership
• Public Speaking
• Microsoft Word